Allentown NIZ benefits show signs of spreading

Allentown is beginning to make progress in spreading the NIZ wealth, but… (JOHN BRAMLEY )

June 10, 2014|Bill White

I'm a sucker for "Rocky" movies.

If you've watched one or more of them, you know there's always some kind of glum interlude — he has a depressing life, Adrian's in a coma, Mickey's dead, Rocky's scared of Mr. T, Apollo's dead — before the uplifting workout montage that carries us to the big fight. Those horns start blaring, and we know everything will turn out OK.

In real life, we usually don't get to pump our fists on top of the art museum steps. We certainly don't get our hands raised triumphantly in the ring. At best, life tends to be a series of small victories, baby steps toward our goals, and there's always the chance we'll get knocked flat.

So as much as I consider the city of Allentown to be a lovable underdog, I'll refrain from humming the "Rocky" theme yet as we consider last week's news that Allentown residents will get two job fairs and preference for jobs coming when the $177 million arena opens in September and the arena hotel opens in November.

"I would say things are moving in the right direction," said Ce-Ce Gerlach, an Allentown School Board member and community activist who has been pushing for assurances that city residents will get first shot at jobs in the city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone. "But it's definitely not the finish line, not the final product of anything."

I've generally supported the NIZ concept and the way it is transforming downtown Allentown. But it never was going to be enough to put up an arena and some nice buildings. The broader goal had to be to improve the quality of life and economic vitality of the city, including the neighborhoods surrounding Hamilton Street.

As gratified as many of us have been at the economic development downtown, we've chafed at the slow progress in spreading the wealth. We've been disappointed that the city never drafted a formal community benefits package for downtown residents and that incentives for NIZ businesses to pay a fair living wage never got off the ground.

So it's encouraging to get good news about job fairs, preferential hiring for city residents, a CareerLink jobs office downtown and establishing a central online site where all new NIZ job openings be found.

It's encouraging to see that a Neighborhood Partnership Plan may raise $500,000 to $700,000 a year from the arena zone's successful businesses and use it to provide nicer homes, safer streets and more jobs in some of the city's struggling neighborhoods.

"I'm never satisfied," said Alan Jennings, executive director of the nonprofit Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, an arena authority member and the guy who pushed hardest for incentives to raise wages in the NIZ. "I hate poverty. I want economic justice. I recognize we're never going to get it, and I'm never going to be satisfied, but there are a lot of good things happening."

Jennings said there are some important developments to watch for in the months to come.

First, he pointed to J.B. Reilly's Four City Center apartment and retail complex at Seventh and Linden streets. "If that works," Jennings said, "that will suggest that people with money are willing to live downtown, and that's critical to the success of the whole thing.

"You can't have the kind of downtown that becomes a ghost town at 5 o'clock. People with a little money to spend willing to live at Seventh and Linden streets is going to be a huge turning point for the city of Allentown."

Second, he hopes to see development around the NIZ. "Whether it's just regular people borrowing money to make home improvements or developers coming in to take a block of problem housing to replace it with new market rate housing, those kinds of developments are going to be keys to all this."

Jennings said people who speak disparagingly about gentrification are misguided. "You've got to have money in the market to make the market work," he said.

He also mentioned the need for positive developments in Allentown's schools, where most of the news has been about budget crises and layoffs. "At some point the schools have to be part of the solution."

Gerlach has her eye on another development. "We'll be happier when the numbers say 80 percent of the employees in the arena and the hotel are Allentown residents. We'll be happier six months later when many of those residents still are working at those facilities because they're good places to work."

Although Jennings said businesses have been receptive to committing funds to the Neighborhood Partnership Program in return for state tax credits, the plan still is developing, and the state budget isn't exactly flush these days. "We've got lots more to do," he said.

In "Rocky" terms? The music has started playing. Maybe he's doing some one-armed pushups, beating up on raw meat, running a little faster on the beach, dragging a sled across Russia's frozen tundra.

But the art museum steps? Mr. T or Drago toppling to the canvas? Yelling "Adrian!" while the crowd cheers?